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The flavour of Kolkata

Kolkata Maidan- The lungs of the city. Lovingly shot by Arindam Patra.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

The first Dragon Boat Festival in the city

I learnt about it from a poster on Facebook. A traditional
Chinese celebration all over the world, it was to be held for the first time in
the city last 21st June, Sunday, organized by the local Chinese
community. The venue was Tiretta Bazar, which is considered to be the old Chinatown of the city. On offer was authentic Chinese
food and lion dance as major attractions. A little looking up on the net
revealed that the Chinese foods would be the same from the famed Chinese
breakfast market of Kolkata set up daily on the street. So there
was reason enough to want to experience it.

Dragon Boat Festival, also often known as the Duanwu Festival, falls on the 5th day of
the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar. As Chinese calendar is
luni-solar, the date changes every year on the international calendar. It is
celebrated with eating zongzi (sticky rice treats with pork and lentil filling wrapped
in bamboo leaves), drinking realgar wine and racing dragon boats in
the river.

Earlier that week, boss told me that the first rainy day
of the monsoon was going to be Sunday as per weather prediction, which dampened
my enthusiasm. Chinese festivals are colourful, and I didn’t want the weather
to either rob it of any colour or prevent it from taking place altogether.

The sky changed between clear and cloudy on the day, and there
was a shower or two. It was overcast around four in the afternoon and just when
I was ready to leave, it started raining. It depressed me to the core. Thankfully it didn’t last long and I rushed. I
took along my elder daughter to let her have a unique experience.

When we reached Tiretta Bazar around six, the lion dance
on the road had ended. A big
disappointment! A blogger friend who came before me and saw it, told me that
the turnout was huge, and far bigger compared to the arrangement, and the food
stalls had little left to offer. But it felt good that so many people ignored
the weather threat to turn up in time. I saw a small gathering in front of a
Chinese church and a crowd inside it. Asked an old Chinese man who told me that
the action had shifted to another lane that he pointed out and that pork dishes
were being sold from the church. Chicken and other dishes were being sold from
that lane. Later another friend who runs a huge vegetarian food group on
Facebook from the city told me that vegetarian items were also being sold from
a Buddhist temple.

The main festival venue was at the said lane. A colourful
pandal decorated with bright red lampshades at the entrance. There was a small
stage at one end where a man was belting out English and Hindi songs on the
tracks played by a DJ alongside. There were food stalls laid out on both sides,
selling phuchka and chops on one side and siu mai, bao, a no. of fried starters,
noodles, fried rice and chicken, and of course sticky rice wrapped in bamboo
leaf, the customary food for this
festival, on the other side. They were all crowded, as everybody wanted to grab
his/ her desired dish before it got vanished. Food coupons (starting Rs 10)
were to be bought from a corner counter and exchanged for food at the stalls. There
were art installations made with waste products like water bottles along the
way and standees depicting history and present times of Chinatown
printed on flex.

The stage

The standee

A lot of young people were shooting the festival with
advanced digital cameras with enthusiasm. It makes a point that today’s
smartphones with the lure of high megapixel cameras haven’t done a great damage
to digital cameras for common people. I think the creation of a large no. of photography
groups on Facebook where one can display his work and receive feedback and get
noticed has contributed to the trend.

These young visitors drew some attention

In a break during the show we took a walk around the
place. We spotted the factory of Pou Chung, a brand of Chinese sauces and
noodles born here in the fifties. As I read in a feature in Metro in The
Telegraph that morning, the founder of Pou Chung is claimed to have made green chili
sauce first in Kolkata, marrying Chinese and Indian flavours. The sauce,
contrary to popular knowledge is not an authentic Chinese sauce, it’s rather a
Kolkata Chinese sauce.

Also noticed that the area has a sizable Muslim population
as well. There is a mosque on the road from Central metro station going
straight into the area where people gathered for evening prayers. The time being
Ramadan, a makeshift stall on the road was dishing out beef, mutton and Chicken
halim.

We went back for another round of lion dance, but it got
postponed. We sampled Hunan Chicken Fried Rice (Rs 50 for a small bowl) and
chicken. The rice was lighter than what is served in restaurants, but tasty,
like homemade food. The stalls were set up by local people with homemade food
and this authentic bit was one of the attractions of this event. I asked for a mix of the spicy Shanghai
Chicken with thick gravy and the dry, fried pepper chicken (Rs 50). The former
tasted good but the latter wasn’t impressive.

A hip hop act was announced. The crowd was requested to
make space at the centre. It was difficult as the gathering was quite thick
post seven o’ clock. It was a nice act by The Big Bong Theory, a hip hop group
(perhaps the only one in the city), cheered by the crowd. They had trained
local children for more than a month, who joined them in the act smartly.

The Big Bong Theory in the hip hop act

The hip hop act

The local children ready for the act

Then followed the lion dance. The dancers in large
colourful masks and costumes came dancing into the venue. But it was woefully
inadequate for most of us to view it. Still we got a flavour of it at last.

The lion dance

Time to bid goodbye. The organizers admitted they were
overwhelmed by the attendance and the arrangement proved inadequate, with the
promise to make it bigger and better this year. In fact they would like to have
it by the riverside with dragon boat race. A lot to look forward to!If you liked reading the post, you may visit this blog's Facebook page (click on the link) and hit the 'Like' button to stay connected with the future updates on this blog and more on the page.